MOBass

I fished a short session yesterday with a couple of guys from my gym. We put in at the Branson campground ramp around 10:00AM and ran up past the island. No water running, wind pushing us towards the darn, water color was clear with a slight green tinge. The water did to seem to take on more color as we drifted and we turned around as it got to a green, slight brown tinge. Normally I hug the island side, but for some reason I hit the other side of the lake and I am glad we did. We had steady action on hard pulling rainbows and had a few times where three or four would follow a hooked fish to the boat. The hot ticket was a white and red or white and pink power egg combo. White and green was not getting bit nearly as well. I did throw a tiny swim bait and had a lot of short bites and followers. The quality of the fish was very good. Half were full of scuds and a couple had really nice salmon colored meat. Most had a power egg or three in them also. We left the fish biting around 12:30. The photo is a couple of representative samples.

State Park has two courtesy docks and they are moving them as needed. Indian Point assessment from your neighbor is correct. Parking in the ditch is about it. It may be tough to launch there with much more water.

I was debating Table Rock or Taney for tomorrow. Looks like Table Rock might be a safer bet. I would hate to get to Taney and find it blown out.

Any guess on how long it will take Taney to clear?

Apparently people were congregating at the ramps so instead of dealing with the people that were a problem she decided to shut it all down. This is where people will start saying to heck with it and just go on with life. Give people good direction, a plan for mitigation and turning things back on, and a little hope most will go along with the rules. Lock things down with no plan other than hide until we tell you it is ok to come out and leave them with the choice of be destitute or face a virus, most or going to take their chances. As for the restricted products. They can be purchased on line for curbside pick up, but can not be purchased in store. The thought process is they don't want people wandering around stores. My experience at the ramp Friday, no one was anywhere near us putting in or taking out. Talked to someone about 20 yards away in a pocket. Hopefully this will continue locally and no one gets any bright ideas about closing the lakes.

Mind if I ask what general area you fished?

I took a break with my daughter and her friend to fish Taneycomo on Saturday. Not much to report in the way of fish. We tried the Branson campground and Landing area drifting power eggs from the bank. Lots of cast, let it hit bottom, bounce down stream, wind in and repeat. The water was clean and green, no mud. The few people we saw were all spread out. I did see a few boats out and was actually surprised there were not more. Side note. It was creepy driving down 76. No traffic, everything closed. Get out if you can, just remember to keep a decent fishing rods length from each other.

With the current level and flow is the area around Branson Landing fishable from the bank? I am thinking about packing a lunch and participating in social distancing this weekend.

Water clarity was much better than my previous trip. Plenty of current around The Landing and the fish seemed to like it. The key was to get a bait to the bottom. Power worm or mouse did better than just power eggs. A small bell sinker is probably the most efficient way to fish the current at the moment. With the sun up the guys fishing a bit deeper were doing better. I would say the guys doing the best were in 20' or so. I stayed in shorter water so I could fish smaller weights and jigs and still caught fish, it was just a bit more of a wait between bites.

I wanted to take advantage of the nice weather, but forgot to take into account how much mud would be flushed in from the overnight rain. Still managed to catch a few on the pink power worm in the slower moving water behind the Bass Pro restaurant. By the time I put it on the trailer it appeared the water was already starting to clear.

Arrived at Indian Point and the gentlemanly hour of 10AM and was in sight of the ramp for the short time I was down there. From 10-Noon a rock crawler/wart produced smallmouth, a couple keepers and a few 13 inchers. Noon-2PM couldn't figure out where they went and called it a day.

The reel you should get depends on what you want to do with it- Budget- Get a Speed Spool for $100. Aluminum frame, 10 bearings, cast really good, kinda like the old green Curado before Shimano screwed them up. I have more of these in my boat than anything else. Chuck and wind - BB1 or BB1 Pro. Cast a mile. The Pro is nice because you don't have to open the sideplate to adjust breaks. Flipping, big bait stuff - SuperDuty. Aluminum frame and handle sideplate. If you like braid and hammer down the drag this is the reel you seek. Team Lew's Lite - $240 and a lot of the guys fishing for big money like them. It's a really good balance between strength and weight, reliable. Tournament MP and Pro are both really good reels from $150-200. The Pro has more features, but they may or may not be something you need so look them both over. Pro Ti is really sexy, all aluminum. Only one gear ratio though so that is a bit of a limitation. Custom Lite - New and just getting out on the street. If you want to build a really light combo get this and a Pro Ti rod. It is crazy light. Lots of other stuff, but the above are what I see as the stand out stuff.

Ah.....Got it. Carrot float goes on the line followed by a section of shrink tube to keep things from getting tangled and then the indicator goes on as a stopper. I was thinking the carrot float and indicator were actually hooked together by the shrink tube for some reason. You explained it well, but my brain was not computing it so well. I think I'll put together a couple of set ups and see how it goes.

Great information Bill and that makes perfect sense after seeing it. Are the carrot float/indicator combos available commercially or are the guides building their own? I did some Google searches and couldn't find anything.

Late report and nothing earth shattering. Morning was slow fishing at the island up past the Branson campground. Afternoon was much better, rainbows were stacked in front of the landing. I held the boat in 11-13' of water and fished spinners, jigs, and spoons for several back to back fish. Left at 3PM with the fish still on the bite. Fish were healthy, pulled hard, and decent size with just a couple little silver bullet rainbows mixed it. I do have a question. I watched a guide fishing longer rods with an interesting indicator sort of looked like a cigar slip float with a string below it attached to something else. Could someone share some insight on the indicator?